“Once I got back home, I was a couple of years older. I went through a lot. I think it does make you stronger. At home, in the past, you were looked after, now you had to take care of everything and do anything on your own. That experience has been an empowerment. It was a lot easier to draw a certain strength from it in years to follow.
Jan Beuzenberg, 18 years old in November 1944